Dean Accepts White House Invitation

July 21, 2006

President George W. Bush invited Mathew Staver, Interim Dean of Liberty University School of Law, and select others to the White House to hear the announcement regarding stem cell research. President Bush addressed each of the three stem cell research bills pending in the U.S. Senate, one of which he vetoed. This was the first veto of his administration.

The president announced his veto of H.B. 810, a bill that would have funded intentional creation and destruction of human embryos, against the backdrop of parents with their small children. Each one of the children had been adopted as a frozen embryo leftover from in vitro fertilization. As President Bush said, “These boys and girls are not spare parts.”

Dean Staver commented: "President Bush has taken a principled stand that promotes science while respecting the sanctity of human life. Science and morality are not enemies. While we must find ways to cure disease and save lives, we must never devalue human life in the process. Our first commitment must be to life, because without the right to life, all other rights are illusory. Some people who support embryonic stem cell research are well-meaning and we must be sympathetic to their emotional pleas, but the fact is we do not have to sacrifice moral principles to advance stem cell research."

Dean Staver concluded: “I was proud and honored to observe President Bush’s commitment to sanctity of all human life. Had he not stood in the gap at the right time, America would have gone down a road from which it would be difficult to return. As the President noted, the Declaration of Independence says that we are endowed by our Creator with the unalienable right to life. That right is extended to the tiniest and most vulnerable human being.”